tenuki wrote: I did this, and I was not dreaming. The difference in the size and completeness of the leaves alone between these two teas tells you the story right away. The price of the teahome legend of Tung Ting is comparable to that of teasprings dong ding ($16/100g vs $22/150g). wow.

Oh something tells me you are not going to be happy with this TeaCuppa Dong Ding.

Back in old Russia long-long time ago most travel was done by train - your old trusty locomotive and sleeper cars. Every car had an attendant in uniform and an attendant’s little compartment that was almost entirely occupied by a five-foot tall samovar heated by coal. Those samovars were at least 3 feet in diameter.

The tea that came out of them was almost thick, dark red-brown, mahogany maybe, rich, slightly smoky with notes of molasses. It was a blend that was called Krasnodar Tea or some-such, but everyone called it the Railroad Tea, because you couldn’t get it anywhere else but the railroad. It was probably a blend of low end Ceylon and Lapsang Souchong with a whole bunch of junk mixed in, it could have been anything - from birds’ poop to potato peelings. I don’t know for sure what it was, but Russian liked to add junk to stuff for bulk.

This tea was divine. It was served in clear glasses set in metal glass holders and accompanied by unrefined yellow sugar cubes. The glass would rattle and clink in the glass holder, the aroma would rise filling the compartment, the dreary landscape washed with perpetual rain would pass by the window. Ahh, the old days… You’d drink your tea and read Chekov.

I was not able to find a similar tea since. Russian Caravan is not even close, Russian Samovar from Gschwendner does not cut it, Russian Tzar is too Earl Grey. The closest in taste and aroma that I found is Queen Victoria's Original 1876 Blend from Todd&Holland ($30 for ¼ pound!), I am sure that’s not the one they served.

I grew up on Lipton instant iced tea < I know, I know>, but that set me toward tea for life. For college all-nighters, it was any old bags in a teapot.
Then a wonderful friend from Japan made matcha for me one day and I realized there was a whole world of tea out there. Another friend got me loose-leaf Irish Breakfast and Earl Grey and I was hooked.

But I didn't know where to find any of this wonderful leaf on my own after we all parted ways from college. You have to understand that this was years and years before the internet. So I made do with whatever black teas I could find. Eventually I discovered Constant Comment (to this day, still my favorite iced tea).

Then about 3 years ago it struck me that I could Google "Tea"...and as the poet said, "that has made all the difference."

I'll have to say black tea on this one. For me serious tea drinking started my freshman year of college when I was too cheap to buy soda when tea and sugar was much cheaper. Early on I favored Twinings Irish Breakfast with a lot of sugar until I found Twinings Prince of Wales which reigned on as my favorite tea until a friend recommended Adagio to me which lead me to discovering Golden Monkey and Puerh which led to my branching out across loose tea as time went on.

Although my tastes run more to blacks and the darker oolongs, my breakthrough tea was white-- a silver needle I tried on a whim at a lovely little cafe/coffee shop. I spent about a year trying to recreate that experience with bagged teas, growing more and more frustrated... until I finally gave in and decided to get serious about this tea thing.

2 great sencha today so far. The Sencha Premium is crazy good light steamed sencha. So much flavor for an asamushi cha. Yutaka Midori...once I relearned how to tame this beast...it too is crazy good.

My breakthrough tea...well...I have always tinkered with drinking tea, but in 1999 I got serious when I had loose leaf All Day Breakfast from RoT. They used to have good stuff back then. But I was completely sold on tea after trying this blend of Keemun and tippy Oolong. I still remember that tea. I went from there to Teasanity...my first green was their Sky Between the Branches days later...I all of a sudden wanted to try every tea on the planet...sound familiar. I have had tea virtually every day since.

I have always enjoyed hot tea even since I was younger (tea bags of course). My first real, loose tea was at an upscale asian restaurant. They had several green teas on the menu and I chose Dragonwell. It is my favorite to this day!

Speaking of Dragonwell, i'm about to enjoy some sushi I picked up at Whole Foods Market earlier, and will be enjoying a cup or 2 (or 3 or 4) of Dragonwell with it.

I was in such a hurry this morning that I forgot to tell you my break through tea, it was green. Surprise? I could never tolerate the cheap bagged black tea that I use to get.
It feels like it's my birthday today, samples from Victoria cam, they all look tasty! She sent me blueberry black tea, orange blossom oolong, ti kuan yin, lady orchid oolong, heiße liebe, liebe (both geman tea bags!), white darjeeling. metropolitan tea, den's green iced tea, paris, and white peony. Where to start? I was looking on TeaChat this morning and my friend, who is from Pakistian, starts asking me about why I was on it and I explained to her that it was a hobby and now I'm bringing some in for her tomorrow. This will be fun! AND I get to see my tea friend this weekend and plan on a weekend of good tea and introducing her to loose tea!